This weekend in Philadelphia science fiction fans will be buzzing around Philcon, The Philadelphia Conference on Science Fiction and Fantasy, a venerable sci-fi convention (excuse me, conference) that is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year.
The artist guest of honor at this years convention is Karl Kofoed, a visionary creator of alien worlds that I profiled in this post back in July.
Kofoed is a veteran science fiction illustrator and the creator of The Galactic Geographic, a remarkable “coffee table book from the future” that is one of the more thoughtful and provocative explorations of the possibilities of life on other worlds.
Kofoed works in both traditional and digital media and is a writer in addition to being an artist, with two novels to his credit, Deep Ice, and the recently published JOKO.
Convention goers (er,.. conference attendees) will have a rare opportunity to meet Karl and see his original art first hand in the con’s art exhibit. Here’s the info on con registration.
Is the work of art featured in here set on a stage? The spotlights spotted the magnificent points of the art thereby increasing the awe from any audience. Is this artwork related to biological science? It’s a unique and artistic way of representing the complicated tangles of neurons in a human brain though it’s much more majestic.
John
The work is called “Sea Treasure”. You can see a slightly larger reproduction from this page, where it is one of the images Kofoed offers as giclée prints.
My assumption is that it represents a large large alien life form illuminated by searchlights from small flying craft. The resemblance to the folds of brain tissue may not be coincidental. I know that Karl takes much of his inspiration for postulating alien life from existing biological forms. I have often known him to be fascinated by small plants, seedpods other bits of nature that go unnoticed by the rest of us.